The donation aims to help “Hardtech” entrepreneurs from the poorly served communities
Billionaires Dan and Jennifer Gilbert distribute $ 800,000 from their fortune to a technology manufacturing accelerator program, aimed at helping entrepreneurs from “poorly served communities” to take off their startups.
In a press release on Tuesday, the Gilbert Family Foundation announced its contribution to the Centerpolis accelerator from the technological university of Lawrence, which will finance the new “Idea to Product” program. The accelerator program, hosted in the Lawrence Tech campus in Southfield, was established In 2018, with support from the city and the state.
“For more than 100 years, Detroit has managed the nation in manufacturing and innovation,” said Laura Grannemann, executive director of the Gilbert Family Foundation, in the press release. “This subsidy allows local entrepreneurs to transform their ideas into tangible products that create jobs and relate challenges to the real world.”
The IDEA to Product program aims to strengthen and put new technologies on the market that integrate both hardware and software, often called Hardtech. Such support is necessary as the manufacturing sector of Michigan increases, and because technologies often require “significant value engineering and an initial investment”, which makes them “more complex and more expensive to develop”, said the press release.
The press release indicates that the program “aims to support Hardtech entrepreneurs in the start -up phase of poorly served communities” and named Detroit, Hamtramck and Highland Park specifically.
“Too many accelerator programs only allow an entrepreneur so far, and they find themselves needing additional help to recognize their dreams of marketing their product,” said Dan Radomski, CEO of the Centerpolis Accelerator at Lawrence Tech. “With the support of the Gilbert Family Foundation, we can broaden our scope and help more entrepreneurs navigate in the course of the idea for commercial reality, to experience the placing on the market of their product and the creation of wealth for them and their families, and to have these products made here in Detroit supporting the local economy.”
The subsidy is the last philanthropic effort of the Gilberts – who are two of the richest people in Michigan – after the Dan Gilbert rocket companies spent billions to acquire two mortgage companies in March. At the back of this wave, the 63 -year -old Tell Bloomberg Businessweek This month, he plans to give his billions.
“One thing that people do not realize is that it is fun to build it, but it’s more fun to give it. It is really,” Gilbert told the point of sale.
The donation also comes in the midst of a meticulous examination and speculation about exactly where its philanthropic priorities are. Detroit News opinion columnist Bankole Thompson Last week, Gilbert was expected to use philanthropy to mitigate the crisis of Detroit “economic justice”, taking into account the amount of tax subsidies that the city gave it for development projects in the city center.